The Felon Loaden With Irons Wiser Than The Judge, If Wisdom Be In Suffering.

What about suffering? The bound-up ego, fashioned of fear, resists anything presumed to be a threat; that resistance is suffering. There may be pain, but there need not be suffering. Yet remember, as this is discussed and pondered, that pain and suffering and ego are labels, words, concepts. The feelings and states they attempt to describe are fleeting, utterly so with the complete fluidity of reality, and these words, as all words try to, point to something else that is "real". So take it all with a large grain of salt; there is very little to say on any subject that can be pinned down and labeled "unchanging truth".

There are objections to the pointer "suffering is oneness, too." There are volumes devoted to relieving suffering. There are skills taught and techniques suggested, all for the purpose of delivering the sufferer from that resistance. Resistance itself is said to be undesirable. Resistance, and the inevitable suffering it creates, are the fearful ego's reaction to what threatens it, its existence, and its identity as the most important thing in the world. The point of all this teaching of Advaita and nonduality is, supposedly, to release us from the bondage of self, of ego. Yet the bondage of ego is indisputably part of it all, this Life. Duality needs opposites, subject and object, for oneness to apprehend itself. The end of the search is the realisation that all is oneness, that we are pure awareness, nothing more or less, and the fragile ego construct is seen as the small and unimportant thing it is, unburdened by the mistaken identity of All. The appearance is not what you are, it is often stated. The mirror of manifest reality is not what it reflects. What you are is mind-boggling, untranslatable, boundless Life. The appearance can be seen as the illusory thing it is, despite its tenacious solidity. And, can be seen that there was only a veil hiding this thing from itself; that reality has been itself all along.

Even in trying to understand such a fundamental concept as oneness, the mind, splitter of oneness, finds it necessary to define awareness as the ultimate and the manifested reality (consciousness) as a shadowy, wavery, poor second.

Yet the appearance, the ego, all that which we are encouraged to discount, though seemingly limited, is beautiful in all its polar opposites and more subtle modularities. In the reflection lives suffering, for suffering is needed for acceptance to be understood and felt. There are no easy answers for suffering, or just HOW to stop resisting, although you may find a few helpful hints here and there. There are supposedly ways and means to deflate and destroy the ego, despite its unwillingness to die, for it has had possession of your identity for so long. Some of these are: stop thinking, if you can; ponder that mind is the creator of time; peel all awareness back to the most basic of realities - that you exist, often referred to as "I Am". If you are suffering, there will probably be help at hand, a stirring to action, a way out, with some energetic flow from resistance to acceptance. The story of life toddles along, and no matter how profound the subject, or how near to absolute reality to protagonist gets, it's all just a story in time.

For suffering to be relieved is a craving of the ego. The need for life to be "better" is the ego's desire. Acceptance is the opposite of resistance; again, perhaps that is the answer, if the question is "How do I stop resisting life?". Yet there are no mistakes. Perhaps resistance shouldn't be resisted; it may just play itself out, in this story. Maybe suffering is there so redemption can follow, for redemption has no meaning unless there is something - suffering - to be delivered from. Perhaps the appearance isn't so vastly inferior to pure awareness; maybe they are the same thing, despite the inconceivable paradox and incongruity of that possibility. Maybe there isn't anything better than right here, right now. If that can be considered by the suffering ego, perhaps the suffering can just be splendid, painful and intensely felt Life.